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Posted at 10:57AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

A musical genius who never lived a normal life.

Given his increasingly bizarre habits, financial strife and questional sexual proclivities, maybe going at fifty has been a bit of a relief all round.

Posted at 10:59AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

The strangest thing: this morning I keep thinking of him as a kid with his big pudgy nose, and in my head for some reason I have the song Tomorrow from Bugsy Malone, which wasn't even sung by his namesake in that film, and besides Fizzy looked nothing like him.

Posted at 11:01AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

I like this one best. How annoying that every instance on YouTube seems to have embedding disabled.

Posted at 11:04AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

If I hade to choose one song it'd be Off the Wall, but right now I'd like to remember him this way.

Posted at 11:07AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

At the risk of repeating myself a million times today: this is a worse story-arc than Elvis'. It's a tragedy in the formal sense of the word, I suppose.

Also, this. Because he was preternaturally talented, a long time ago before it all went so terribly wrong.

Posted at 11:14AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

To me (since I'm also not above repeating myself) it's the Marylin parable, in spite of the significantly different ending. Insanely talented and iconic, we couldn't handle them and they couldn't handle us.

Posted at 11:17AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

I wonder who’ll inherit the rights to the Beatles songs.

Posted at 11:18AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

I was just reminded on Twitter that he broke MTV's colour barrier. (When he was, erm, stil black. :) )

Posted at 11:20AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

Tragic, utterly. Despite how completely off the rails it all went, the first thing I pictured when I heard the news was the clip for "Billie Jean" -- unquestionably one of the great songs of the 20th century. So I suspect that we'll remember the talent and come to forget the weirdness. And I feel like the reverse will apply to Phil Spector.

Posted at 11:25AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

So I suspect that we'll remember the talent and come to forget the weirdness.

When so much of the "weirdness" involved an emotionally stunted man's creepy interactions with children, I respectfully doubt it.

Posted at 11:27AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

I wonder who’ll inherit the rights to the Beatles songs.

Hasn't Jackson been deeply in the fiscal merde for a long time? If so, I have a funny feeling the kids aren't going to be inheriting much at all.

Posted at 11:29AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

Hasn't Jackson been deeply in the fiscal merde for a long time? If so, I have a funny feeling the kids aren't going to be inheriting much at all.

Yeah, good point. He's been raising debt against those assets for years. It'll all have to be liquidated now. And it's going to be a hell of a mess.

Posted at 11:32AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

The man has sold 750 million albums. Anybody want to bet how many he's going to sell in the next twelve months? I have a feeling the estate will pull through somehow.

Posted at 11:34AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

Joe, that song's one of my all time guilty pleasures. And a heartbreaker, especially if you imagine that the boy is pretty much singing to himself, rather than (or as well as) to his pet rat.

All downhill from there.

Posted at 11:37AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

The man has sold 750 million albums. Anybody want to bet how many he's going to sell in the next twelve months? I have a feeling the estate will pull through somehow

Also a good point. But who knows how leveraged he was? I'm thinking, very.

Posted at 11:37AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

So I suspect that we'll remember the talent and come to forget the weirdness. And I feel like the reverse will apply to Phil Spector.

I think I'll probably *try* to remember the weirdness and talent equally for both. I mean, Spector had been threatening people with guns for years, and Jackson's been a walking punchline for over a decade. I think it's actually harder for people to remember the music, which in both cases is objectively great for the first flush of releases...

Posted at 11:37AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

And while Michael Jackson's life was one the phrase 'hot mess' was coined for, he at least was responsible for one of the few charming moments in the usually charmless oeuvre of Kevin Smith:

Posted at 11:43AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

It's a good reminder that men in their 40s and 50s are more likely to just hit the floor with a heart attack. Females have a much higher rate of survivability for some reason. It's a very mundane death for an extraordinary guy.

Posted at 11:49AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

As an aside, all that mask wearing nonsense didn't do him much good

Posted at 11:50AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

Breif interview, 1971

Posted at 11:59AM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

Farrah Fawcett has died. Of course her death will be overshadowed by Jackson's, which is a shame.

Posted at 12:00PM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

The first record I ever bought was Thriller, when I was 10. I wish I had been born a few years earlier so I could say it was Off The Wall, but not to be.

I can vividly remember in Standard Four watching RTR and Beat It had been number one for eight weeks or something like that. Thinking this was my music.

I feel as though that Michael Jackson hasn't been around for a very long time. Sadly.

Posted at 12:04PM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

I mean "brief."

Posted at 12:06PM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson... And now twitter is going nuts that Jeff Goldblum has died on set??

Posted at 12:09PM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

Also a good point. But who knows how leveraged he was? I'm thinking, very.

Indeed. I recall an interview where Gérard Depardieu was asked why so many of his films -- and he does a lot -- are utter crap, and the answer was rather endearing. He likes to eat and drink, and not from the cheap end of the menu either. He just can't afford to turn down anything he's offered.

I don't know how far living off your back catalog takes you when you've tastes as expensive as Jackson but you don't tour and your only album of new material in 18 years tanked. Compare and contrast The Rolling Stones or US -- who may be equally past their creative prime but never seem to be off the road and are putting new material out there.

Posted at 12:10PM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

Adding to Tom's list, for those who remember the NME in its glory years: Steven Wells. Sadly, I doubt a Jackson/Wells encounter ever took place.

Posted at 12:12PM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

The house he was renting cost $100,000US a month, I just read. Yowza.

Posted at 12:14PM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

I think this is the web going nutz, now somebody's talking about Harrison Ford. (Oddly enough, Google News reports the Goldblum rumour as having originated on a NZ site. Was it you, Tom?!)

I'm beginning to fear for Kevin Bacon.

Posted at 12:15PM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

Compare and contrast The Rolling Stones or US

I mean U2.

Oh, and apparently Harrison Ford is dead too... Forget about "if looks could kill", I'm happy Twitter isn't lethal. :)

Posted at 12:17PM on 26 Jun 09. Permalink.

And now twitter is going nuts that Jeff Goldblum has died on set??

Shenanigans.